17:9 Protect me from 1 the wicked men who attack 2 me,
my enemies who crowd around me for the kill. 3
50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; 4
consuming fire goes ahead of him
and all around him a storm rages. 5
79:3 They have made their blood flow like water
all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them. 6
82:5 They 7 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 8 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 9
104:20 You make it dark and night comes, 10
during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.
116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, 11
the snares 12 of Sheol confronted me.
I was confronted 13 with trouble and sorrow.
1 tn Heb “from before”; or “because.” In the Hebrew text v. 9 is subordinated to v. 8. The words “protect me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
2 tn Heb “destroy.” The psalmist uses the perfect verbal form to emphasize the degree of danger. He describes the wicked as being already in the process of destroying him.
3 tn Heb “my enemies, at the risk of life they surround me.” The Hebrew phrase בְּנֶפֶשׁ (bÿnefesh) sometimes has the nuance “at the risk of [one’s] life” (see 1 Kgs 2:23; Prov 7:23; Lam 5:9).
4 tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”
5 tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”
6 tn Heb “they have poured out their blood like water, all around Jerusalem, and there is no one burying.”
7 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
8 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
9 sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).
10 tn Heb “you make darkness, so that it might be night.”
11 tn Heb “surrounded me.”
12 tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.
13 tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.